Like always, the Coachella lineup is full of big names. But there are more than a handful of names with a loyal following.
Vickie Connor/Desert Sun

Jean-Michel Jarre intergrates electronic music and laser lights to deliver political messages on the Los Angeles leg of his Electronica World Tour. Photo by Eric Voake/Special to The Desert Sun(Photo: Courtesy of Jean-Michel Jarre)

Coachella fans have complained about the dearth of rock artists, the absence of major reunions, the lack of pay parity between male and female artists, and the absence of an out-of-left-field blockbuster performer to succeed Hans Zimmer at the 2018 festival.

Coachella founder Paul Tollett has heard it all and isn’t fazed.

“I wish a poster could come out that no one ever heard of anyone, and they were all great," Tollett said in an exclusive Desert Sun interview before Friday's launch of America's biggest music festival. "That would be my dream.

“The poster came out this year and everyone knew the headliners, but a lot of people, after the headliners, it dropped off for them. It’s a niche life out there. Should I just get household names that aren’t big (on the charts), just so that when you read the poster you go, ‘Oh, I know it all’? Or, do you say, ‘Discover.’

The Goldenvoice-produced event running April 13-15 and April 20-22 at the Empire and Eldorado polo fields in Indio has been a testament to the joy of discovery for 19 years. This year, Tollett, 52, gets as excited as a kid half his age when talking about the emerging successes of some acts that aren’t household names yet.

“Maybe I wouldn’t know them, either, but I work at Goldenvoice, so I watch current culture happening in real time,” he said. “We did Los Angeles Azules. A lot of people never heard of that (band) and then there was this whole other contingent that fully knew it and were super-excited that they were coming. You go down the list: Russ. It sounds like a small name. Well, I sold two nights at the Shrine. Could have gone a third night. These guys sold 10,000 tickets.”

One artist he wants festival-goers to discover is French electronic pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre. Jarre will turn 70 in August and he’s making his first U.S. tour. But he recently did some huge shows in South America and the Middle East's Dead Sea, where he integrated his passion for educating audiences about the fragility of the environment with his penchant for outdoor spectacle.

French electronic artist Jean-Michel Jarre is expected to put on a spectacle show from Coachella's Outdoor Theater on Fridays.(Photo: Erik Voake/Special to The Desert Sun)

He's planning something that Tollett says could match Zimmer on the Richter Scale.

“Super interesting and I’ve got to get the word out to the people that are coming,” Tollett said. “Don’t sleep on that one. That’s going to be so insane. He’s nighttime Outdoor Theatre. It’s going to be a bigger stage than usual and we’re letting it rip out there. It’s sort of like when Hans Zimmer played. When you book it, it’s like, ‘Oh, Hans Zimmer is cool, of course. Who doesn’t want Hans Zimmer?’ Then, after you’ve released the poster, you realize, oh, it’s way better than you thought. I’ll admit, I didn’t realize how over-the-top the reaction was going to be for Hans Zimmer.”

Jarre, who collaborated with Zimmer on his 2016 album, “Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise,” told The Desert Sun he’s planning an immersive electronic experience that also will serve as an alarm to the threat of climate change.

“Since I have been making music for quite a few decades now, I have had two major influences threading through my work: technology and ecology,” he said. “Forty years ago, when I composed ‘Oxygène’ as a manifesto, an alarm, to create awareness around climate change, we certainly were not many beating that drum.”

Jarre, who celebrated the anniversary of his 1976 album, “Oxygène,” by releasing “Oxygène 3,” made history again in 1986 in Houston. He was asked by the Houston Grand Opera and NASA to create a concert marking the 150th anniversary of Texas and the 25th anniversary of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Jarre used 2,000 projectors to shine images onto buildings and 1,200-foot screens, transforming the city’s skyscrapers into giant backdrops for a spectacular fireworks and laser light show with music mixing traditional symphonic music, electronics and saxophone.

The Guinness publishers recognized the “Rendez-vous Houston” concert as having a world record audience of 1.5 million people. Then, several months later, Jarre did a concert for 1 million people in his native Lyon, France. Those live shows were released in his album, “Cities in Concert – Houston/Lyon.”

Jarre cited those shows, and his recent Dead Sea concert, when asked if his Coachella set would address climate change, the presidency of Donald Trump and even the threat to the Salton Sea in another “Olympian moment.”

“The concept of my Cities in Concert outdoor city-scale concerts was also a statement in creating the link between the audience and the surrounding environment, whether man-made or indeed natural, as (was) my last outdoor concert on the banks of the Dead Sea,” he said. “The exploration of large-scale visuals has been at the heart of the technology in my concerts from the very beginning. I was probably one of the first artists to propose such an important visual accompaniment with my live performance.

“Coachella and its picturesque setting at the foot of the mountains is indeed a special experience for all those who partake, and it’s only natural that I want to offer the audience here a unique experience that encapsulates at best my artistic DNA. I want people to ‘see’ my music, as much as they can hear it.”

Keeping it current

Tollett prides himself on keeping the Coachella lineup current, but he said he doesn’t view this year’s program as a harbinger of the death of rock.

“When the lineup came out, instantly there were some people like, ‘Ah, there’s no rock!’ – just because of the three headliners,” he said. “You look through it and we’ve got some great rock. Greta Van Vleet, Highly Suspect, and then there are some things people don’t call rock, but it is rock. Rock has changed. It’s not just four dudes with a guitar. Like, St. Vincent is rock to me. She’s ferocious on guitar. (Recent Grammy winners) Portugal. The Man. We’ve got them dark on main stage. They’ve got a prime spot.

“I don’t like when there’s an instant review of a lineup. I wish there was a 60-minute cool-down period of people to be able to click through everything. At least before attacking, listen to the 18 artists we put in the Sonora Tent and decide. I’m really proud of the Sonora Tent. It’s got a lot of rock. I don’t think you understand a show until a day or two after, and you start reflecting on it.”

Coachella has featured a mix of rock, hip-hop and electronic music since the festival's inception in 1999. He begins negotiating with some performers years in advance and, of course, Beyoncé was slated to headline last year before withdrawing after becoming pregnant with twins. Tollett had also long pursued the other headliners, R&B vocalist The Weeknd and hip-hop star Eminem.

“It’s just that this is what it turned out to be,” he said. “We’ve had all rock headliners before. We’ve had different things. It’s not forever.”

Tyler the Creator, seen performing at the 2015 Coachella Festival, is one of many hip-hop artists generating excitement at the 2018 Coachella.(Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)

But he’s proud to feature many hot new hip-hop artists because they emerge so much faster than rock artists, thanks to the proliferation of mix-tapes promoted online by influential bloggers. Cardi B, who just appeared on "Saturday Night Live," had her debut album, “Invasion of Privacy,” certified gold within minutes of its release Friday. Tollett booked her just as she was ascending. She became just the second female rapper to score a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 last fall with her debut single, “Bodak Yellow.”

“Looking back, if you’re trying to do a show in 2018 that is trying to be a current thing, I think I would be making a mistake if I didn’t have Cardi-B,” said Tollett. “A lot of people have been talking about her. You start feeling it, for sure. At one point, she had five or six songs in the top 10.”

Cardi B, seen arriving at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in January, is a featured artist at Coachella.(Photo: Dan MacMedan/USA TODAY NETWORK)

Tollett has Cardi B, who is six months pregnant, listed on the second line of the Coachella poster for Sunday with electronic giant ODESZA, rockers Portugal. The Man, and A Perfect Circle, fellow rappers Migos, and urban vocalist Miguel. He also has urban vocalist SZA second billed on Friday after The Weeknd and he said with only slight exaggeration, “She’s bigger than everything right now.

“The last couple years we’ve been going a little heavier on hip-hop,” Tollett said. “I don’t know if we have as much this year as we had last year. Fortunate for us, we’ve had all these elements from year one, it’s just, what ratios?”

Last year, the rap group Migos created a sensation by making multiple guest drop-in appearances at Coachella. That influenced Tollett to give them a premier slot this year.

“When they popped up last year, it was heat in each place,” he said. “Like, ‘Oh, no, they’re on another stage.’ People were going crazy at each place.”

Migos, shown during a recent appearace on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," received a prime spot at this year's Coachella after their drop-ins at last year's festival caused a sensation.(Photo: Andrew Lipovsky/ Courtesy of NBC)

Drop-ins have become part of the Coachella culture and that's what makes The Weeknd one of Coachella's most intriguing headliners. His last album, "Starboy" from late 2016, featured collaborations with Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar, Future and Daft Punk. He's also had hits with Drake, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande and Beyoncè. If half of his collaborators "dropped by," it would be one of the most star-studded sets ever.

Tollett justifies The Weeknd's headliner status by noting that The Weeknd has exceeded expectations in his previous Coachella appearances. He debuted in the prestigious sunset slot on the Outdoor Theatre in 2012, returned in 2015 and made a guest appearance last year with Nav that turned into his own solo sideshow when Nav wandered off and let The Weeknd perform material from his last two albums.**

"The last time he played, it was explosion time for him," Tollett said, "And he's way bigger now, so that made sense."

But Tollett adds that drop-ins are fun to watch and a pathway to greater attention.

This year, Southeast London multi-genre producer TroyBoi, who has worked with artists as diverse at Ice Cube and The Kinjaz on “America’s Best Dance Crew,” says he’ll have special guests both weekends for a Friday show he calls “something spectacular and different than what you have seen at Coachella before.”

He told The Desert Sun that will include aerial performers and break dancers helping him interpret the many influences of his genre-busting album, “Left Is Right.”

TroyBoi has special guests planned for his Friday shows at Coachella(Photo: Courtesy of TroyBoi)

“On my last two tours, ‘Mantra’ and ‘Left Is Right,’ I wanted to take things to the next level and bring my music to life through other arts,” TroyBoi said. “Having the dancers, aerialists and live musicians really elevated the show and gave my vision an edge like no other. It’s organically grown every tour because I’m always looking to come up with ideas bigger and better than the last time. There is no better feeling in the world than putting your heart and soul into something and to receive so much love back.”

Jazz inclusion

One reason for hip-hop’s growing popularity is its fusion with other musical forms, like electronica, R&B and jazz. King Krule, an English singer, rapper and multi-instrumentalist who plays with a live band, calls his music "punk jazz" or "jazz rap." He’s being promoted on the same line of the poster for Sunday as jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington, who frequently plays for the rapper Lamar.

Tollett doesn’t know what kind of music Washington will play, but he’s excited to find out.

“He’s incredible,” said Tollett. “I have him on sunset second stage because I just feel like that’s going to be a beautiful moment. As I’m booking some of them, I’m thinking exactly where they’re going to be and, if I couldn’t deliver that slot, I might not even want them this year. So, on this one, I had that slot open. I thought, that would be fun.”

The British funk-jazz band Jamiroquai is a second-line-of-the-poster act on Friday. They’re fronted by Jay Kay, 47, one of several “older” artists on the bill. Besides Jarre, the baby-boomers include Saturday performers David Byrne of Talking Heads and Nile Rodgers & Chic, who both emerged in the mid-1970s.

Rodgers and Chic played Fantasy Springs Resort Casino last year, so they don’t qualify as a Coachella reunion. But Tollett said he didn’t seek a Talking Heads reunion.

“I don’t want to have this thing where you have to do it every year,” he said. “It should come out of left field.

“(Byrne) was touring and I had heard exactly what he was going to be doing. I don’t know if you’ve seen it on video. There’s no equipment on stage. Each person is holding their instrument and walking around all over the place. It was just like, ‘Oh, wow, this is so different than anything we’ll have.’ So, I gave him a sunset slot, too, second stage. He’s funny. He’s got all these young people that love him. I would think his fans would be my age, and there’s that, too, for sure. But there are just tons of people who are young who love those songs.”

Tollett booked more female performers for Coachella in 2018 than any year in its history. Of the 167 acts, a great majority are still male, but there are 38 female solo artists or groups and 13 bands including women. Tollett has many women booking venues such as the Shrine Auditorium and Fonda Theatre, plus the Stagecoach country music festival. But, he says all festivals are dependent on agents submitting acts to them.

Paul Tollett, CEO and President of Goldenvoice receives the Business Persons of the Year award from the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce on June 5, 2014 at the Renaissance Palm Springs Hotel.
(Photo:
Omar Ornelas/ The Desert Sun
)

“The promoter can pick anyone he wants, but the pool of artists is interesting to see where it’s changed over the years,” he said. “Everyone has to do better, but, it’s coinciding with a time when there are lots of up-and-coming female artists that have releases out. This is actually a really great year for it.”

The queen of Coachella is obviously Beyoncè. She’s the biggest artist on the bill and Tollett jokes that he doesn’t have to worry about pay parity when negotiating with her.

“The Beyoncé story dominates everything,” he said. “She saw her husband play here (in 2010) and came back as a fan. So, did Jay (-Z). They’ve been friends of the festival. We actually had a blast with them.

“So, she gets pregnant. Twins. Cancellation. Because of the timing of her postponing to this year, they had a whole tour set up, her and Jay-Z. Generally, I won’t let an artist announce a local (Los Angeles) show if they’re playing Coachella. I want them to concentrate on this show. That was the intent here, too, until I started thinking: There have just been so many extenuating circumstances on this one. I can’t even add them all up.

“I’m not looking to put lines in sand right now on Beyoncé. She’s been great to us.”

People generate power on a teeter totter near the Trashed recycling/art garbage bins at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Efforts are being made to encourage recycling of discarded plastic water bottles and other waste left by attendees.
Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

The Shabbat Shalom tent on the campgrounds of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival encompasses five campsites. It's creators want Jewish festival-goers to know they can have a Shabbat meal while still enjoying the festival.
Anna Rumer/The Desert Sun

Attendees of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival can one-of-a-kind clothing at the Lot, Stock and Barrel pop-up shop at the festival grounds, where patches and embroidery designs inspired by festival artists are for sale.
Kristen Hwang/The Desert Sun

Attendees of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival can one-of-a-kind clothing at the Lot, Stock and Barrel pop-up shop at the festival grounds, where patches and embroidery designs inspired by festival artists are for sale.
Kristen Hwang/The Desert Sun